BILL NUMBER: SCR 104	CHAPTERED
	BILL TEXT

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER  122
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE  SEPTEMBER 10, 2012
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR  SEPTEMBER 10, 2012
	ADOPTED IN SENATE  AUGUST 22, 2012
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  AUGUST 31, 2012

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Wolk
   (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Galgiani)
   (Coauthor: Senator La Malfa)

                        AUGUST 20, 2012

   Relative to the 100-year anniversary of the Sikh American
community.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 104, Wolk. One-hundred-year anniversary of the Sikh American
community.
   This measure would state that the Legislature recognizes October
13, 2012, as the 100-year anniversary of the Sikh American community,
and would call upon the people of California to commemorate the day
with appropriate celebrations.



   WHEREAS, October 13, 2012, will be recognized as the 100-year
anniversary of the Sikh American community; and
   WHEREAS, Sikhs, traveling from their homeland of Punjab, first
arrived in the United States through Angel Island Immigration Station
in San Francisco in 1899; and
   WHEREAS, The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib, which was founded in 1912,
is recognized as the first permanent Sikh American settlement and
gurdwara in the United States; and
   WHEREAS, Baba Jawala Singh and Baba Wasakha Singh, founding
granthis of the Stockton Gurdwara Sahib, who first emigrated to the
United States through Angel Island in 1908, recognized the supreme
value of education by starting the Sri Guru Govind Singh Educational
Scholarships for University of California, Berkeley, students, and
awarded the first scholarships on January 1, 1912, without regard for
gender, ethnicity, or religion, to a Christian, to a Sikh, to a
Muslim, and to three Hindus; and
   WHEREAS, The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib was founded by Teja Singh of
the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society on October 24, 1912, with Baba
Jawala Singh and Baba Wasakha Singh in leadership; and
   WHEREAS, The Ghadar, the first Punjabi-language newspaper in the
United States, was published on November 1, 1913, by Kartar Singh
Sarabha, then 17 years of age, with financial support from the
Stockton Gurdwara Sahib; and
   WHEREAS, Baba Jawala Singh and Baba Wasakha Singh organized the
Gadri Conclave in Sacramento on December 31, 1913, to form the Ghadar
Party; and
   WHEREAS, The Ghadar Party was the first organized and sustained
campaign of resistance to the British Empire's occupation of the
Indian subcontinent, and it sent 616 members to India, of whom 527
were Sikhs; and
   WHEREAS, Kartar Singh Sarabha traveled to India to support the
independence movement, but at 19 years of age was tragically arrested
and hanged, along with young Maratha Vishnu Ganesh Pingley and five
other Sikh Ghadris, by the British on November 16, 1915; and
   WHEREAS, The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib, upon completion, was
dedicated on November 21, 1915, to Guru Nanak Dev Ji, founder of the
Sikh tradition, on the occasion of his 426th birth anniversary; and
   WHEREAS, The gurdwara furnished provisions to the people of
Stockton, as reported by the Stockton Record on November 22, 1915,
which quoted the gurdwara's elected leadership: "We do not permit our
people to become charges on public charity. If a man is hungry and
out of funds we feed him. Our dining room is open at all hours of the
day and is closed only for a few hours during the night. The
unfortunate hungry American will be as welcome as our own people";
and
   WHEREAS, The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib funded a delegation,
including Dr. Sudhindra Bose of Iowa University and Dr. Bishan Singh
of Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society, to attend a congressional
hearing on February 13, 1914, in Washington, D.C., to advocate for
the citizenship rights of Indian and Asian peoples; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind, then a student at University of
California, Berkeley, volunteered to serve in the United States Army
on July 22, 1918, at the height of World War I, becoming the first
Sikh to serve in the United States military, and was honorably
discharged after attaining the rank of Acting Sergeant; and
   WHEREAS, Thind persistently pursued United States citizenship,
receiving and losing it twice, and championed Asian American
citizenship rights all the way to the United States Supreme Court in
the landmark case of United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) 261
U.S. 204, before permanently obtaining citizenship in 1935; and
   WHEREAS, The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib continued to support higher
education among the South Asian population by establishing Guru Nanak
Khalsa Hostel at University of California, Berkeley, on February 13,
1921, to provide free board and lodging for students from South Asia
to peacefully focus on their studies; and
   WHEREAS, Dalip Singh Saund was general secretary of the Stockton
Gurdwara Sahib from 1948 to 1950, inclusive, and a member of the
executive committee until 1953, and became the first Asian American,
first Indian American, and first Sikh to serve in the House of
Representatives when elected in 1956 to represent California's 29th
Congressional District until 1963; and
   WHEREAS, Dr. Bruce La Brack of the University of the Pacific
describes the impact of the Stockton Gurdwara Sahib thus: "The
Stockton gurdwara gave a focal point to Punjabi life on the West
Coast; it served as a combination church, dining hall, rest home,
employment information center, meeting place, political forum, and
sanctuary where Punjabi culture and language were understood. The
Stockton facility was a hub of social, religious, and political life
for all Sikhs and many other Punjabis in California between 1915 and
the late 1970s"; and
   WHEREAS, The Sikh American community continues to make significant
contributions to the California and United States economy and
society through military service, as business owners, transportation
professionals, doctors, attorneys, engineers, teachers, farmers, and
in a great many other notable capacities; and
   WHEREAS, The Sikh American community has faced and continues to
peacefully overcome attacks on its identity and practices since the
September 11, 2001, attacks, whether in the form of school
harassment, employment discrimination, or murder, including the
murders of six Sikhs during the Oak Creek Wisconsin Sikh Gurdwara
shooting on August 5, 2012, as well as the senseless murders of
Surinder Singh and Gurmej Atwal in Sacramento on March 4, 2011; and
   WHEREAS, The faithful service of the Sikh American community to
this state and country merits appreciation as an integral thread in
the fabric of American plurality; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature recognizes October 13, 2012,
as the 100-year anniversary of the Sikh American community, and
calls upon the people of California to commemorate the day with
appropriate celebrations; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.